Asymptotic Derivation and Numerical Investigation of Time-Dependent Simplified Pn Equations

The steady-state simplified Pn (SPn) approximations to the linear Boltzmann equation have been proven to be asymptotically higher-order corrections to the diffusion equation in certain physical systems. In this paper, we present an asymptotic analysis for the time-dependent simplified Pn equations up to n = 3. Additionally, SPn equations of arbitrary order are derived in an ad hoc way. The resulting SPn equations are hyperbolic and differ from those investigated in a previous work by some of the authors. In two space dimensions, numerical calculations for the Pn and SPn equations are performed. We simulate neutron distributions of a moving rod and present results for a benchmark problem, known as the checkerboard problem. The SPn equations are demonstrated to yield significantly more accurate results than diffusion approximations. In addition, for sufficiently low values of n, they are shown to be more efficient than Pn models of comparable cost.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figure

Advanced Strain-Isolation-Pad Material with Bonded Fibrous Construction

The feasibility of utilizing air lay and liquid lay felt deposition techniques to fabricate strain isolation pad (SIP) materials for the Space Shuttle Orbiter was demonstrated. These materials were developed as candidate replacements for the present needled felt SIP used between the ceramic tiles and the aluminum skin on the undersurface of the Orbiter. The SIP materials that were developed consisted of high temperature aramid fibers deposited by controlled fluid (air or liquid) carriers to form low density unbonded felts. The deposited felts were then bonded at the fiber intersections with a small amount of high temperature polyimide resin. This type of bonded felt construction can potentially eliminate two of the problems associated with the present SIP, viz., transmittal of localized stresses into the tiles and load history dependent mechanical response. However, further work is needed to achieve adequate through thickness tensile strength in the bonded felts

Bittrosan/Quassan/ Quassia-Extrakt; Auswertung einer Umfrage bei den Anwendern

The on hand survey on damage regulation through saw wesps in the ecological fruit-growing leads to the following results: In the years 1996-1999 a significant amount of parasites was ascertained in middle Europe. Practically only trade products based on Quassia products were used for the damage regulation. With appropriate usage the reproducable effect of these preparations was proven in the observation period of time. Indications of a reduced product quality of the Quassia formulation in the year 1999 have not been taken out of the survey results

Temperature dependence of the collective mode and its influence on the band splitting in bilayer cuprates

The recently observed bilayer splitting in high-T$_c$ cuprates is analyzed within a model where the charge carriers are coupled to a phenomenological bosonic spectrum which interpolates between the marginal Fermi liquid structure and collective mode type behavior as a function of temperature. We argue that the origin of the collective mode is probably associated with dynamic incommensurate charge density waves. Moreover it is shown that the resulting temperature dependence of the self-energy $\Sigma$ is in good agreement with $\Sigma$ as extracted from angle-resolved photoemission data.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for PR

Time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation for the Hubbard model

We develop a time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation (GA) for the Hubbard model analogous to the time-dependent Hartree-Fock (HF) method. The formalism incorporates ground state correlations of the random phase approximation (RPA) type beyond the GA. Static quantities like ground state energy and double occupancy are in excellent agreement with exact results in one dimension up to moderate coupling and in two dimensions for all couplings. We find a substantial improvement over traditional GA and HF+RPA treatments. Dynamical correlation functions can be easily computed and are also substantially better than HF+RPA ones and obey well behaved sum rules.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Meshfree finite differences for vector Poisson and pressure Poisson equations with electric boundary conditions

We demonstrate how meshfree finite difference methods can be applied to solve vector Poisson problems with electric boundary conditions. In these, the tangential velocity and the incompressibility of the vector field are prescribed at the boundary. Even on irregular domains with only convex corners, canonical nodal-based finite elements may converge to the wrong solution due to a version of the Babuska paradox. In turn, straightforward meshfree finite differences converge to the true solution, and even high-order accuracy can be achieved in a simple fashion. The methodology is then extended to a specific pressure Poisson equation reformulation of the Navier-Stokes equations that possesses the same type of boundary conditions. The resulting numerical approach is second order accurate and allows for a simple switching between an explicit and implicit treatment of the viscosity terms.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure

Optimal prediction for moment models: Crescendo diffusion and reordered equations

A direct numerical solution of the radiative transfer equation or any kinetic equation is typically expensive, since the radiative intensity depends on time, space and direction. An expansion in the direction variables yields an equivalent system of infinitely many moments. A fundamental problem is how to truncate the system. Various closures have been presented in the literature. We want to study moment closure generally within the framework of optimal prediction, a strategy to approximate the mean solution of a large system by a smaller system, for radiation moment systems. We apply this strategy to radiative transfer and show that several closures can be re-derived within this framework, e.g. $P_N$, diffusion, and diffusion correction closures. In addition, the formalism gives rise to new parabolic systems, the reordered $P_N$ equations, that are similar to the simplified $P_N$ equations. Furthermore, we propose a modification to existing closures. Although simple and with no extra cost, this newly derived crescendo diffusion yields better approximations in numerical tests.Comment: Revised version: 17 pages, 6 figures, presented at Workshop on Moment Methods in Kinetic Gas Theory, ETH Zurich, 2008 2 figures added, minor correction

Vortex, skyrmion and elliptical domain wall textures in the two-dimensional Hubbard model

The spin and charge texture around doped holes in the two-dimensional Hubbard model is calculated within an unrestricted spin rotational invariant slave-boson approach. In the first part we examine in detail the spin structure around two holes doped in the half-filled system where we have studied cluster sizes up to 10 x 10. It turns out that the most stable configuration corresponds to a vortex-antivortex pair which has lower energy than the Neel-type bipolaron even when one takes the far field contribution into account. We also obtain skyrmions as local minima of the energy functional but with higher total energy than the vortex solutions. Additionally we have investigated the stability of elliptical domain walls for commensurate hole concentrations. We find that (i) these phases correspond to local minima of the energy functional only in case of partially filled walls, (ii) elliptical domain walls are only stable in the low doping regime.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for Phys. Rev.

Dissipation of stop-and-go waves via control of autonomous vehicles: Field experiments

Traffic waves are phenomena that emerge when the vehicular density exceeds a critical threshold. Considering the presence of increasingly automated vehicles in the traffic stream, a number of research activities have focused on the influence of automated vehicles on the bulk traffic flow. In the present article, we demonstrate experimentally that intelligent control of an autonomous vehicle is able to dampen stop-and-go waves that can arise even in the absence of geometric or lane changing triggers. Precisely, our experiments on a circular track with more than 20 vehicles show that traffic waves emerge consistently, and that they can be dampened by controlling the velocity of a single vehicle in the flow. We compare metrics for velocity, braking events, and fuel economy across experiments. These experimental findings suggest a paradigm shift in traffic management: flow control will be possible via a few mobile actuators (less than 5%) long before a majority of vehicles have autonomous capabilities